Sierra entertainment

Ground

In 1979, IBM programmer Ken Williams and his wife, Robert Williams, founded On-Line Systems to develop graphic games for the Apple II computer. Games were in demand and brought quick success. In 1982, the company moved to Oakhurst (California) at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range and was renamed Sierra On-Line ^[1] .

The heyday

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, the company consolidated its credibility in the computer games market by releasing many advanced adventure games of its own design, which gained wide popularity.

Sale and departure from development

In July 1996, Sierra On-Line was sold to CUC International . Immediately after the sale, Ken Williams resigned as Chief Executive Officer. Nevertheless, he continued to work with the software division as CUC vice president, trying to define Sierra's strategic line. However, a year later Ken and Roberta Williams left the company.

In December 1997, CUC International and HFC Incorporated merged, resulting in the emergence of the Cendant Corporation . The scandal that erupted in 1998 over financial irregularities committed by CUC management for several years caused lengthy litigation and the company's share price fell from $ 39 apiece to 20, resulting in irreparable financial losses. On February 22, 1999, many Sierra production studios were closed, and about 135 people lost their jobs.

2000s

Despite the dissolution of more developers, the company continued to act as a publisher of independent games, including such well-known as Half-Life , World in Conflict , Homeworld 2 , TimeShift , SWAT 4 .

In 2003, Sierra Entertainment released the second adaptation of the Hobbit video game.

At the direction of the parent company Vivendi Universal Games, to eliminate financial problems and due to the lack of profitability as a developer, further measures were taken to reduce staff. Impressions Games and the Papyrus Design Group were closed in the spring of 2004, and about 50 people lost their jobs; 180 people were laid off at Vivendi offices in Los Angeles, and in June 2004, VU Games closed Bellevue Sierra, which left more than 100 people without work, who were however assigned to work in other divisions of the company and moved to Vivendi Universal headquarters Games in Fresno ( California ). Other studios, such as Print Artist, were finally closed. The Hoyle franchise was sold to an independent developer. A total of 350 people lost their jobs.

At the end of 2005, the Sierra brand was re-launched in Los Angeles, including the Sierra Online brand, which was supposed to focus on online.

In 2005-2006, Massive Entertainment , High Moon Studios , Radical Entertainment , Secret Lair Studios / Studio Ch'in (based in Seattle and Shanghai) and Swordfish Studios were bought or transferred from the parent company Vivendi. As a result of these rotations, Sierra received the brands Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, 50 Cent: Bulletproof and Scarface. However, after 2008, the company disappeared from the publishing horizon.

Return

As a result of many subsequent internal resales between brand owners, Sierra fell under the wing of Activision ^[2] and on August 8, 2014 a video appeared on YouTube demonstrating the brand’s revival, urging it to wait for details after Gamescom .

• Dynamix
• Troika games
• Impressions Games
• Papyrus design group

Company Breakthroughs

• Mystery House is the first graphic quest in the history of computer games.
• King's Quest IV - day / night cycle; The first game that supports stereo ( sound card ).
• King's Quest V is the first game released on CDs . Sierra's VGA's first project, although several other studios have published VGA games (even VGA adventure games) before.
• King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride is the first and last game of the series, released in the cartoon style of FMV .
• The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery - unlike the first part of Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers , came out in FMV. It turned out to be the most elaborate part of the series. Nominated for the best interactive movie genre game.
• Phantasmagoria is the first interactive horror quest.
• Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail! - The last part of the classic quest series Leisure Suit Larry , released in FMV in the style of King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride , that is, in a cartoon style . Like the previous part, all the characters were voiced.
• Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh - became the first game in the world with the most realistic graphics due to the use of FMV not only with actors, but also with the environment (at the time of November-December 1996, the Windows version had the best game graphics in the whole world). Unlike the first Phantasmagoria, gameplay has increased from 1.5 to over 4 hours. However, the abundant use of age-related elements, such as blood , cruelty , violence , erotic content and the presence of the theme of homosexuality and bisexuality, seriously underestimated her rating among game publishers in Western countries.

• Sierra: The Adventure Game Years (Eng.) // Retro Gamer : journal. - Live Publishing, 2017 .-- No. 173 . - P. 38-43 .